Right now, you're probably sitting down to watch this video
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and staying seated for a few minutes to view it is probably okay.
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But the longer you stay put, the more agitated your body becomes.
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It sits there counting down the moments until you stand up again
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and take it for a walk.
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That may sound ridiculous.
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Our bodies love to sit, right?
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Sure, sitting for brief periods can help us recover from stress
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or recuperate from exercise.
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But nowadays, our lifestyles make us sit much more than we move around,
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and our bodies simply aren't built for such a sedentary existence.
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In fact, just the opposite is true.
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The human body is built to move,
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and you can see evidence of that in the way it's structured.
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Inside us are over 360 joints, and about 700 skeletal muscles
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that enable easy, fluid motion.
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The body's unique physical structure gives us the ability to stand up straight
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against the pull of gravity.
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Our blood depends on us moving around to be able to circulate properly.
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Our nerve cells benefit from movement,
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and our skin is elastic, meaning it molds to our motions.
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So if every inch of the body is ready and waiting for you to move,
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what happens when you just don't?
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Let's start with the backbone of the problem, literally.
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Your spine is a long structure
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made of bones and the cartilage discs that sit between them.
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Joints, muscles and ligaments that are attached to the bones
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hold it all together.
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A common way of sitting is with a curved back and slumped shoulders,
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a position that puts uneven pressure on your spine.
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Over time, this causes wear and tear in your spinal discs,
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overworks certain ligaments and joints,
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and puts strain on muscles that stretch
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to accommodate your back's curved position.
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This hunched shape also shrinks your chest cavity while you sit,
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meaning your lungs have less space to expand into when you breath.
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That's a problem because it temporarily limits the amount of oxygen
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that fills your lungs and filters into your blood.
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Around the skeleton are the muscles, nerves, arteries and veins
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that form the body's soft tissue layers.
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The very act of sitting squashes, pressurizes and compresses,
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and these more delicate tissues really feel the brunt.
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Have you ever experienced numbness and swelling in your limbs when you sit?
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In areas that are the most compressed,
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your nerves, arteries and veins can become blocked,
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which limits nerve signaling, causing the numbness,
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and reduces blood flow in your limbs, causing them to swell.
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Sitting for long periods also temporarily deactivates lipoprotein lipase,
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a special enzyme in the walls of blood capillaries
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that breaks down fats in the blood,
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so when you sit, you're not burning fat nearly as well as when you move around.
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What effect does all of this stasis have on the brain?
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Most of the time, you probably sit down to use your brain,
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but ironically, lengthy periods of sitting actually run counter to this goal.
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Being stationary reduces blood flow
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and the amount of oxygen entering your blood stream through your lungs.
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Your brain requires both of those things to remain alert,
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so your concentration levels will most likely dip
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as your brain activity slows.
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Unfortunately, the ill effects of being seated don't only exist in the short term.
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Recent studies have found that sitting for long periods
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is linked with some types of cancers and heart disease
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and can contribute to diabetes, kidney and liver problems.
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In fact, researchers have worked out that, worldwide,
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inactivity causes about 9% of premature deaths a year.
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That's over 5 million people.
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So what seems like such a harmless habit
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actually has the power to change our health.
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But luckily, the solutions to this mounting threat are simple and intuitive.
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When you have no choice but to sit,
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try switching the slouch for a straighter spine,
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and when you don't have to be bound to your seat,
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aim to move around much more,
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perhaps by setting a reminder to yourself to get up every half hour.
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But mostly, just appreciate that bodies are built for motion, not for stillness.
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In fact, since the video's almost over, why not stand up and stretch right now?
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Treat your body to a walk.
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It'll thank you later.
